


In Which Secret Tunnels are Put to Good Use

by story_monger



Category: Brave (2012), Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, How to Train Your Dragon (2010), Rise of the Guardians (2012), Tangled (2010)
Genre: Crossover, Gen, Rise of the Brave Tangled Dragons, the big four
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-22
Updated: 2013-03-22
Packaged: 2017-12-06 02:27:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/730537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/story_monger/pseuds/story_monger
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's crossovers everywhere! Merida, Jack Frost, Rapunzel and Hiccup as Hogwarts students, making use of a secret tunnel into the grounds. Lots of cute, fluffy stuff.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Which Secret Tunnels are Put to Good Use

“This’s a bad idea.”

“Shh.”

“Merida—“

“Fer god’s sake, Haddock, shut yer hole or I’ll have Zel do it.” Merida’s bush of hair bobbed as she peered around the corner of the corridor, her wand slightly raised. Hiccup wasn’t sure who she was kidding. It wasn’t as if they’d be attacking anyone they met. Because only Merlin knew how expelled they’d be for Stupefying a professor in the dead of night.

  
Hiccup chanced a glance back at Rapunzel, who offered him a crooked smile with eyebrows nearly disappearing into her hairline. A simultaneous apology for Merida and adrenaline-fueled expression of ‘can you believe we’re actually doing this?’

  
(No, by the way. No, Hiccup could not believe in the slightest that they were doing this. And if his father—no, don’t think about that either.)

  
“Move,” Merida hissed, and began hustling down the corridor like something out of a Muggle spy film. Hiccup nearly laughed, then didn’t because he really, really didn’t need to be expelled. Also, Merida terrified him. Just a little.

  
The three of them came to another stop next to a dusty oil painting that usually featured a witch and wizard posing with a set of colorful potions. Hiccup had never paid it much mind before.

  
“Lumos,” Merida muttered, and held her wand up to the painting while Hiccup shot glances up and down the hall. The next time his eyes fell on Merida, she was poking the canvass with the glowing tip of her wand. The witch and wizard, he saw, snoozed lightly against opposite sides of the frame.

  
“Are we…supposed to say a password?” Rapunzel asked in a low voice, leaning past Hiccup to get a better look.

  
“We do a sort of poem with them,” Merida eyed the painting with a deepening rift between her eyes. “No good if they’re slobberin’ all over themselves though, is it?”

A beat of silence.

  
“We could leave it,” Hiccup suggested in a mild voice. “Not for nothing, but I still have double Charms in six hours and—“

  
“We’re doin’ this,” Merida poked at Hiccup’s chest with her wand, “fer you, you idiot. Stop complaining.”

  
“We’re doing this because you and Jack were getting bored with tormenting the Ravenclaw Quidditch team,” Hiccup clarified.

  
“And they bloody well deserved it too,” Merida bristled. “Sorry, Zel. But ‘specially with that Wendall kid, pullin’ fouls outta his—“

  
“We’re doing this because we know you, Hiccup, and you’ve been miserable and won’t admit it,” Rapunzel interrupted. She paused, frowning. “I mean, also what you said. But mostly because we care.”

  
“Right. That,” Merida nodded, suddenly sounding gruff. The three of them stood watching one another awkwardly for another second before Merida harrumphed and turned back to the painting. “Maybe if I get a little fire going,” she said.

  
“Merida!”

  
“Just a little one!”

  
“Here,” Rapunzel stepped forward, pulling her own wand from the pockets of her oldest robes. She seemed to hesitate before lightly tapping the witch and muttering something under her breath Hiccup didn’t catch. For a split second nothing happened. Then the witch made a very loud snort and straightened, automatically reaching up to steady her hat.

  
“Lookit you, Zel,” Merida clapped Rapunzel on the back, her eyes sparking. “What was that?”

  
“A basic waking spell,” Rapunzel shrugged, grinning in spit of herself. “It’s a few chapters ahead in Defense Against the Dark Arts but—“ she shrugged again.

“That was great, Rapunzel,” Hiccup hastened to add, and his friend’s grin grew just a little wider.

  
“Yes, very impressive, can I help you?” the witch mumbled with more than a hint of irritableness.

  
“No need ter get snippy,” Merida stowed her wand into her robes and crossed her arms as she tilted her head up towards the painting. “Can’t pretend yer not used ter this.”

  
“I could get less used to it,” the witch replied, though she eyed Merida with something bordering amusement beneath the general disgruntlement. “I suppose you have something to ask me?”

  
Merida took a small breath before speaking. “From whence do you come?”

  
“Behind me.”

  
“And where do you go?”

  
“The road before.”

  
“Can ye tell me where all past things are?”

  
“Or who cleft the devil’s foot?”

  
“Go and catch a shooting star.”

  
“And if you find her, let me know.” The witch nodded. “Good delivery.”

  
Hiccup frowned. “That supposed to be a poem?”

  
“Supposed to, being the operative word,” the witch pulled off her spectacles and rubbed them on the front of her robes. “George over there thought it’d be very clever to play with Muggle literature. I told him to leave the prose to the minds designed for it, but he’s a stubborn ass if I ever saw one.” She glanced across the frame at the wizard who must have been George, but Hiccup saw he saw softness in the expression nevertheless.

  
“In any case,” the witch’s portrait swung open to reveal a small tunnel that would just accommodate the three students if they stooped. “May be a bit musty,” the witch warned them as Merida strode forward. “Not been used since that pale boy found it a few weeks ago.”

  
“Thank you,” Rapunzel said, following Hiccup. “Sorry for waking you up.”

  
“Ach, comes with the job description, dear. Don’t get in too much trouble now.” And with that, the portrait closed to send the three of them into fuggy darkness. Almost automatically, all three pulled their wands out and muttered “Lumos,” but even then, the dim space felt oppressive.

  
“D’you think I should—“ Rapunzel trailed off.

  
“If you don’t mind,” Hiccup said. A little shuffling, and then a sweet, clear voice echoed down the hall. Hiccup looked back to find a golden glow rising like a dawning sun from the thick braid of Rapunzel’s hair.

  
“— _bring back what once was mine_ ,” Rapunzel finished, and when she looked up at them, her face was framed with a halo of light. Hiccup realized he was smiling, just a little, and remained ninety percent sure that he’d see a similar grin on Merida’s face if he were to turn around.

  
“Don’t care what you say,” Merida said, leading them forward once again. “As far as curses go, you have a damn good one.”

  
“It could be worse,” Rapunzel agreed after a beat. They didn’t speak much after that, concentrating on not bumping their heads on the roof of the tunnel. Rapunzel’s hair sent a warm, far-reaching light, but even that didn’t reveal every unevenness in the tunnel’s floor. Every few minutes, someone stumbled or outright tripped, and someone else had to reach out a hand to steady them. It was slow going, and Hiccup’s back was just starting to ache from the awkward angle when a ribbon of fresh air permeated the dank air.

  
“C’mon,” Merida urged them, picking up her pace. Hiccup did the same, gradually making out Merida’s outline as they neared an opening. Through a tangle of hanging vines and suddenly the three of them stood on the edge of a small ridge that eventually sloped, far in the distance, to the greenhouses. Hiccup peered around to find themselves at the edge of a large mass of bushes that he’d often seen but never paid much mind. It stood at the very edge of Hogwarts grounds, a messy area that never looked completely tamed.

  
“Took you all long enough,” a voice said, and they looked up to find Jack sprawled on the thick grass a few paces from the tunnel’s mouth. He still wore his school uniform, his green tie loose around his neck.

  
“Not that your instructions were at all clear,” Merida pointed out, picking her way down to him. “You’re just lucky Zel is a bookworm and knew how to wake up paintings.”

  
“Oh.” Jake winced slightly, and straightened from his lazy slouch. “Right. I…don’t think I thought of that.”

“Obviously,” Merida rolled her eyes.

  
“How on earth did you find this, Jack?” Rapunzel asked, her hair dimming back into a regular blonde.

  
“This end,” Jack leapt into a stand, looking pleased as pitch once again. “Skipping out on Herbology and did some exploring. Lucky for us, eh Hiccup?”

  
“Sure,” Hiccup was already eyeing the distant towers of Hogwarts, and startled when Jack threw an arm around his shoulder.

  
“C’mon, you’re not bailing now, are you? I’ve been planning this for days.” Hiccup felt his shoulders slump.

  
“You guys don’t play fair,” he groused. “Merida threatens me, Rapunzel is too nice, and you guilt me. I didn’t stand a chance.”

  
“Nope,” Jack agreed, letting his arm fall and nudging Hiccup forward. “Let’s go. I planned for about three hours before anyone is missed.”

  
The four students crept forward, all light now stowed. The security wasn’t exactly tight in this part of the grounds, but that didn’t mean they could be obvious either.

  
The meeting place Jack had selected was a little copse of trees just outside where the Forbidden Forest began. It was an ideal location, Hiccup had to admit. Sheltered, near enough to the forest, and nowhere near the groundskeeper’s hut.

  
Once they had all entered the copse, they crouched in a rough circle and looked at Hiccup expectantly. Hiccup looked over them, at Merida’s fierce blue eyes and even fiercer hair, Jack’s expression that always seemed on the verge of laughing, Rapunzel’s fresh face, eternally open and eager. And he wondered, yet again, how on earth he’d ended up with these people as friends. What’s more, friends who planned and then executed schemes like this.

  
“You goin’ to meditate?” Merida asked. “Let’s do this!” Hiccup nodded and pulled out the little whistle he’d carved himself so many months ago. It had the rough shape of a dragon, if you squinted, and Hiccup still regarded it with some pride.

  
Now, he placed it to his lips and gave a long, sharp blow. No sound came for him, save a mild pressure to his eardrums, but he imagined a pair of black ears pricking somewhere in the forest. He gave a second blow to be safe, then let the whistle fall and rocked back on his heels.

  
“May take a while,” he said, and the other three nodded seriously.

  
They didn’t speak for several long minutes, somehow comfortable in the sounds of crickets and distant laps of water from the lake. And Hiccup didn’t hear the wingflaps until seconds before something large and dark and wriggling landed nearly on top of him.

  
Rapunzel gave a soft, delighted sort of shriek, and Hiccup rolled over to find himself nose to nose with a broad, black muzzle.

  
“Hey bud,” he was grinning wildly now, he could tell, but he didn’t care because Toothless was all over him like a dog who hadn’t seen its master for days. Only this time it had been weeks, and no matter what Toothless pretended, Hiccup didn’t believe for one second that it didn’t get a little lonely in the Forbidden Forest. Toothless was making that huffing sound that Hiccup knew, in dragons, was as good as a laugh. And because he could, he laughed right back, scratching under Toothless’ chin and behind his ears and occasionally babbling nonsense just so Toothless could hear his voice.

  
“Ok, ok,” he said, still grinning stupidly, as he went into a stand. “Goo—down, Toothless. Down, bud.” Toothless grunted and kept pressing his muzzle into Hiccup’s midsection, as if to say, _I don’t even care, man, I’m just ecstatic to see you again. The food around here sucks. Who are these people? I don’t even care. Oh man, I don’t even care._

  
Hiccup looked up to find varying expressions of “aren’t you _adorable_ ” from his friends and scowled abruptly.

  
“What?” he demanded, and Merida outright giggled.

  
“Just good to see you cheerful,” Jack shrugged. Hiccup offered a one-shouldered shrug in return and kept rubbing at the top of Toothless’s head.

  
“So um,” he managed to pry Toothless’s face out of his robes. “Everyone, this is Toothless. Toothless, these are those weirdoes I mentioned who insist on following me around.”

  
“He’s beautiful,” Rapunzel breathed, crouching down. “I’ve never seen this breed.”

  
“Yeah, apparently they’re only really found up in Berk,” Hiccup shrugged, watching as Toothless finally took proper interest in the three additional humans. He sidled forward, sniffing at Rapunzel’s outstretched hand. Merida and Jack watched with more caution, perhaps wary despite the stories they’d heard from Hiccup.

Toothless nudged Rapunzel’s hand, then let her scritch him beneath the chin with a satisfied grunt. He nudged at her hand when she stopped, and Hiccup rolled his eyes. Attention whore.

  
“C’mon,” he tilted a wry grin towards Merida and Jack. “Not scared are you?”

  
“Never met a kid with their own dragon hidin’ in the Forbidden Forest, no,” Merida shot back, but stepped forward nonetheless to crouch beside Rapunzel and peer at the black wings folded against Toothless’ side. Jack followed suit, though still not quite as near as the girls.

  
Hiccup leaned back on his heels and watched Toothless act the perfect charmer, snuffing at Merida’s hair and all but purring under Rapunzel’s hands, letting Jack finally run his fingers over warm, pebbled skin.

  
This went on for about fifteen minutes before Toothless flicked his ear back towards Hiccup and shifted his wings. It was a suggestion, a subtle query, and Hiccup knew the dragon felt the same suppressed eagerness as himself. He stood and cleared his throat.

  
Rapunzel caught on first, and stepped back with a barely suppressed grin.

  
“You still have that bag I charmed for you?” she asked. Hiccup nodded and pulled out what could have been a small handbag, yet revealed Toothless’ saddle when Hiccup thrust his hand inside.

  
Merida, Jack and Rapunzel watched with focused interest as Hiccup set up the saddle, Toothless wriggling beneath him. And when Hiccup climbed on the dragon’s back and felt his prosthetic foot slide into place, he felt a sudden surge of pride that he could finally answer, in full, why he’d never been too bothered by the shots other students sometimes took about his foot, the comments that Jack and Merida responded to with bristling words and that could even get Rapunzel to “accidentally” spill boiling potion on someone’s robes.

  
Toothless flexed beneath him, and between one moment and the next, they launched into the air with a whoosh of cold air. Hiccup whooped, not caring who heard, and he heard Merida shout something in her thick Scottish brogue.

  
As Toothless’s wings beat around him, Hiccup decided that yes, maybe he did owe Jack for cooking this scheme up. He supposed he owed Merida and Rapunzel too, for prodding him forward. But for the moment, Toothless all but vibrated with energy and so Hiccup let him climb high above Hogwarts’ towers.

  
And not even the thought of Charms in five hours could dampen the moment that they stopped climbing and let themselves enter freefall.

  
Not even a little.


End file.
